Design Shop Home and Interiors
Melissa Powell
Architecture
Architecture and interiors under one roof with New Leaf Custom Homes.
Refined but livable, elevated but warm.
Most residential projects involve a handoff. An architect designs the structure and passes it to an interior designer, who passes it to a builder. Each brings their own process and their own timeline. By the time the house is finished, the original architectural vision has passed through several sets of hands.
Design Shop Home and Interiors is built to work differently. The Dallas firm brings architecture and interiors under one roof, with direct access to sister companies New Leaf Custom Homes and Pools by Design when a client wants a fully integrated experience from concept to completion. The architectural vision does not stop at the front door. The interior design does not begin from scratch after the walls are up.
Melissa Powell founded the firm and serves as principal across both departments. Brett Davis, the firm's Creative Director, joined as its first architect in 2014 and leads the architectural work. Their practice is built around a clear conviction: that thoughtful design and a highly tested process produce work that is refined but livable, elevated but warm, and always rooted in the way each client truly lives.
Why Design Shop Home and Interiors is on our list
Design Shop Home and Interiors is one of the rare Dallas firms where the architectural vision and the interior design are genuinely continuous — not handed off between teams, but held by the same people through the full process.
If you are building or renovating a custom home and want a guided, integrated experience from the first sketch to the final installation, this is a firm worth knowing.
Q
Tell us who you are and what you stand for in your work.
A
Our practice brings architecture and interiors together under one roof, with the ability to collaborate closely with our sister companies, New Leaf Custom Homes and Pools by Design, when a client wants a more seamless experience from concept to completion.
We stand for thoughtful design and a highly tested process. Our work is refined but livable, elevated but warm, and always rooted in the way each client truly lives.
“Our work is refined but livable, elevated but warm, and always rooted in the way each client truly lives.”
Q
Tell us about a working relationship that felt exactly right. What made it work?
A
A working relationship that felt exactly right was with a client building a custom home where we were involved from the very beginning — architecture, interiors, and overall vision.
What made it work was the trust. The client came in with clear inspiration and confident personal preferences, but they also gave our team room to guide the process. They were engaged, responsive, and thoughtful in their feedback, which allowed the process to feel truly collaborative instead of transactional.
“When clients give the team room to guide, the process becomes truly collaborative instead of transactional.”
Q
How do you design for the way a family actually lives, not just the way a home looks in photos?
A
We strive to understand each client's vision and the rhythm of their home through thoughtful questionnaires, client meetings, and inspiration research. Through that process, we uncover family dynamics, daily routines, motivations, and long-term goals for the home.
From there, we help guide decisions based on budget, livability, durability, maintenance, and constructability — making sure the home feels beautiful, functions well, and can be thoughtfully executed in the field.
“We uncover family dynamics, daily routines, and long-term goals to make sure the home functions as beautifully as it looks.”
Q
Walk us through how a project moves from first conversation to construction documents. Where do clients most often underestimate the process?
A
Once the initial contracts are signed, each project moves through our design pathway: floor plans, exterior elevations, budget check-ins, interior selections, interior plans and elevations, and final construction documents. The construction documents are where most of the invisible work happens.
The friction usually comes from timing, decision fatigue, and hidden dependencies. A client may want to move quickly, but the process slows down if we are waiting on a survey, soils report, engineering feedback, or final approval on the floor plan. What we have learned is that clarity early saves stress later. We educate clients from the beginning about what information is needed, which decisions are coming, and why certain steps cannot be skipped.
Our role is to make the process feel organized, honest, and guided. There will always be friction in custom residential design because every home is personal and every site has its own constraints. But when clients understand the process and trust the sequence, the work becomes much smoother — and the final set of plans is stronger because of it.
“Clarity early saves stress later. We educate clients from the beginning about what is needed and why certain steps cannot be skipped.”
Q
Tell us about the smallest detail in a project you have designed that you are most proud of — something most people would never notice.
A
We spec lighting controls that most people never consciously notice, but they feel them every single day. Dimmers in every room so there is no such thing as harsh overhead light at dinner. Jamb switches in closets and pantries so the light comes on when you open the door and off when it closes, like a refrigerator. You never think about it, you just reach in and everything is visible. Outlets and switches on timers tied to dusk so the house is never dark when you come home. You walk in and it already feels like someone expected you.
Nobody photographs a jamb switch. But the person who lives there uses it twenty times a day.
“You walk in and it already feels like someone expected you. Nobody photographs a jamb switch, but the person who lives there uses it twenty times a day.”
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